News and views about the implementation of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2009 and other legislation, schemes and policies impacting the Right to Education of India's Children.

The Central Advisory Board for Education (CABE) will hold its 61st
meeting under the chairmanship of Union HRD Minister MM Pallam Raju on
April 2, 2013 in New Delhi. According to an HRD ministry statement, the
issues to be discussed in the meeting include review of Right to
Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, National Higher
Qualification Framework and use of Information and Communication
Technology (ICT) in higher education. The CABE is the highest advisory
body to advise the Central and State Governments in the field of
education.

CABE is looking to evolve a National Higher Education Qualification
Framework (NHEQF) on priority. The NHEQF essentially seek to provide a
standardised framework in terms of minimum entry qualification,
programme durations, teaching learning processes and learning outcome
aimed at national, and ultimately the universal, acceptability,
recognition and equivalence of not only the degrees but also the
qualifications.

It said that the NHEQF shall be an structured instrument for the
development, classification and recognition of knowledge, skills,
competencies and learning outcome associated with a qualification.
Consequently, it will indicate the comparability of different
qualifications and path of progression from one level to another and
also from one institution to another.

In terms of ICT in education. the advisory board is looking to increase
internet connectivity in education, provide low cost computing and
content generation though schemes like the National Mission on Education
through Information and Communication Technology (NMEICT). This
scheme, has been envisaged as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme to leverage
the potential of ICT, in teaching and learning process for the benefit
of all the learners in Higher Education Institutions in any time any
where mode.

CABE will also discuss the formation of an autonomous 'National Textbook
Council' to monitor textbooks. This council would represent civil
society and academia. It would provide ordinary citizens a forum to
register complaints regarding textbooks to be followed up by an
investigation by the Council. The RTE Act implementation would also be
reviewed, in terms of the implementation, status of untrained teachers
and curriculum renewal in states.

The government has decided to set up an Education Commission to make
recommendations for improvements at all levels of education. The new
Education Commission will be tasked with providing the framework of a
national policy that would address the needs and challenges of the
present education system.

The other issues in the agenda include discussing best practices adopted
by states in mid-day meal scheme and best practices in implementation
of school sanitation and hygiene education, apart from elimination of
gender and social gaps in school enrolment.

Angry that unaided minority schools have been exempt from the
Right to Education (RTE) Act, the Forum for Fairness in Education (FFIE)
plans to file a public interest litigation (PIL) in the Bombay high
court. FFIE is challenging a notification exempting schools from
reserving seats for children from economically weak families.

The latest RTE notification, uploaded on a government website on
March 20, said unaided minority schools will not have to set aside 25%
of their seats for children from economically weaker and disadvantaged
groups. FFIE, an NGO working against corruption in education, said the
notification is against the spirit of the RTE Act. The Forum alleged
that if the notification is enforced, the burden for implementing RTE
will fall only on a few schools, as over 80% of schools in Mumbai fall
under the minority unaided category.
“With just a handful of seats available to them, very few poor
students will be able to secure admission in good quality schools,” said
Jayant Jain, president, FFIE.
The Forum also said unaided minority schools, many of which claimed
minority status to escape obligations under the RTE Act, are flouting
all norms of being a minority institution.
“A minority institution is supposed to have 50% students belonging to
that minority community, but in most such schools there are hardly 5 to
10% minority students. If they do not mind admitting students from
non-minority groups, why are they opposing students from weaker
sections?” he asked.
Jain said the notification is contrary to the state’s interpretation
of the amendment to the Act. Earlier, the former project director of
Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan interpreted the amendment to mean that only vedic
pathshaalas, madrassas and other schools offering theological education
would be exempt from RTE. Now, the interpretation is that schools that
do not receive aid from the government and are run by a minority group
will be exempt from the Act.

Saturday, March 30, 2013

Bangalore: In what may be considered
as the first statement alluding to the possible action the state
government may take on private schools, which are threatening closure
protesting the Right to Education (RTE) Act, Secretary for Primary and
Secondary Education G Kumar Naik on Tuesday hinted that the recognition
of these schools “will be in peril”.
Answering questions from the media on RTE at a press conference
to announce the Shaalegagi Naavu Neevu programme, Naik said, “All
schools have to comply to the RTE Act. Even the judiciary is monitoring
the progress of its implementation. If schools resort to protest
methods, their recognition will be in peril.” He was referring to the
decision taken by the Karnataka (Recognised) Unaided Schools
Managements’ Association (KUSMA) to shut schools from July 16-22 to
protest the implementation of the RTE.
Minister for Primary and Secondary Education Vishweshwar Hegde
Kageri said, “The Act has been cleared by Parliament, and it is our duty
to ensure education to every child. Schools cannot take the future of
children for a ride. Then, the government will definitely take action.”
The Minister called upon the agitating schools to come forward to
discuss their problems.

Minority Status:
Minority status of schools, which is the most contested aspect of the
RTE Act, is likely to be cleared in the upcoming Monsoon Session of the
State Legislature.
Without revealing what the Education Department has planned on
that front, Kageri said, “Our proposal on minority status has moved from
the Law and Finance Departments, and it will be placed before the House
in the next session. I am hopeful that it will be passed.”
According to highly-placed sources, minority status of a school
will be determined based on the composition of students.For instance, a
school will be considered “minority” only if more than 50 per cent of
the students belong to a minority community.
“If a school is hesitant to admit even 25 per cent because it
wants to maintain the minority status, the remaining 75 per cent
students should be ideally from a minority community. In the interest of
the children’s right to education, we have proposed this move,” a top
official told Express.

HYDERABAD:
Protecting private schools from implementing the Right to Education act
is a state government order, according to which seats in neighbourhood
government and aided schools should be filled before private schools are
approached for admission under RTE. The order has been a key reason for
private schools to steer clear of earmarking 25 per cent seats under
the RTE Act. But Supreme Court advocate Ashok Agarwal, who has been
spearheading the RTE implementation, says that the GO is in violation of
the Act.
In the city on Wednesday, Ashok Agarwal told TOI that he had been travelling to various districts across Andhra Pradesh
to meet lawyers and create awareness about the act so that they can
take up cases of violation. "Section 12 of the RTE Act makes it very
clear that it is a child's right to get admission in a private school
and such a government order (issued by the state government) is in
contradiction of this provision. The state while framing the rules
cannot violate the act, they don't have power. This amounts to repealing
section 12," Agarwal said.

He
said another problem in AP is in the rules framed by the government on
RTE's implementation. "They have applied reservations in this 25 %. This
is reservation within reservation which is not permissible," he said.
Agarwal,
who has been actively involved with MV Foundation, has toured districts
including Kurnool, Khammam and Nalgonda over the last few days speaking
to lawyers. "We are telling our lawyer friends about RTE provisions and
asking them to adopt one school and then find out violation of the act.
People can go to taluka and even district court... they needn't move
the high court. We are getting a good response," he said.

MANGALORE: RTE Forum, a national-level platform of people's
organizations working towards effectively mobilizing the community to
ensure the implementation of the Right to Education Act, (RTE) 2009,is
planning to expand its activities in the state.
The forum, which
is an informal alliance of various organizations like Campaign Against
Child Labour (CACL), Child Rights and You (CRY), UNICEF, UNESCO and
others, has already begun its work in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar,
West Bengal, Odisha, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Uttarakhand, Andhra
Pradesh and Karnataka.

CACL activist Udaya Kumar told TOI that a preliminary meeting to chalk
out plans to set up the state branch of the forum will be held in
Bangalore on Friday.
"NGOs and all stakeholders will take part in
the meet and about 300-400 organizations are expected to join hands for
the initiative," he added.
According to educationist Renni
D'Souza the forum is a collective national initiative of civil society.
"The major role of the forum is to defend its ideological stance on a
host of issues related to education. The forum seeks to address issues
related RTE implementation at different levels. It works towards
demanding the governments upgrade all government schools on par with the
standards of Kendriya Vidyalayas. This is the first step towards
building a national system which ensures quality education to all
children," he said.

NEW DELHI: Only 19% of complaints of violations of RTE Act
that have come to monitoring body National Commission for Protection of
Child Rights in the year 2012-2013 have been closed. Since the first
year of RTE (2010-2011) when the commission closed over 57% cases, the
percentage of cases it has managed to solve in a year has dipped
considerably despite decline in their numbers, data from replies to an
RTI query filed by activist Rashmi Gupta has shown.

With states being nowhere near meeting the deadline for implementation
of the Act set at March 31, activists are demanding a monitoring body
that can take action; not just recommend it.

The percentage of
complaints closed has dropped from 57.6% (2010-2011) to 21.54%
(2011-2012) and 19.21% (2012-2013). Shantha Sinha, chairman, NCPCR,
argues that "is not something to be alarmed about". "There is a
procedure for closing," she explains. "We are very careful to not just
close without the complainant is fully satisfied." The Delhi Commission
for Protection of Child Rights is not faring much better having solved
116 of 557 cases (20.82%) registered with it.

Interestingly, the number of complaints registered with NCPCR
has declined drastically in some states over the three years. In Andhra
Pradesh, it fell from 780 in 2011-2012 to 39 in the last year; in
Maharashtra, the number of cases was 132 in 2011-2012 and 14 last year
and the number of cases dropped from 771 (2010-2011) to just two in
Rajasthan (2012-2013). The total number of cases NCPCR dealt with last
year — 687 —is less than half of what it was the previous year (1,768).

This, however, is not indicative of improved conditions and increased compliance on the part of institutions.

For one, launch of state commissions has eased the strain on the
national body. "Several state commissions have been set up in the last
year and complaints are going directly to them," Sinha said. But
activists argue that the decrease in complaints registered despite
greater awareness has more to do with people losing faith in the body's
ability to effectively deal with complaints. The number of complaints
from Delhi, which has had a state commission, has also fallen from 517
(2011-2012) to 320 (2012-2013).

"We have been demanding from
the start that NCPCR be made a statutory committee with the authority to
taking direct action," RTE Forum convenor, Ambarish Rai, said. Though
Sinha maintains that the recommendations are complied with, Rai argues
that until the national and state commissions are allowed to take
action, they will remain toothless as monitoring agencies. "If nothing
has been done on recommendations, the commissions can take judicial
action, taking the party to court," he said, adding, "But there is no
evidence of their having lodged any case."

With
the closure of admission process for free quota seats under RTE (Right
to Education) on July 5, 2012 in Nagpur, about 98% of the seats
available in state board schools were left vacant. Sources from
education department revealed that the city has about 450 private
unaided state board schools (English medium) to which 25% free RTE quota
seats were applicable and total intake capacity is 11,000. About 634
applications were received by the schools of which only 272 admissions
were made till last date.

The rest
of the applications are under consideration due to lack of essential
documents to be submitted. The department also declared that the
admission process will remain open till all the vacant seats under RTE
quota are filled. The earlier deadline of July 5, 2012 was only the
first round to get the process started in schools. The CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education)
and other board schools are yet to submit the final figures for the
total admissions to the local education office; however, the sources
expect the overall percentage to remain same.

The schools of Nagpur had decided to follow a ‘common plan’ under
which the admissions for the free 25% RTE quota seats were reopened.

The city has been repeatedly appraised for being a pioneer in
implementing the RTE quota. Despite of having only 2.5% admissions
against the free RTE quota seats, Nagpur is still called the leader.
This shows how poorly other states have been performing in implementing
RTE.

CBSE school principals of the
state called a special meeting on July 6, 2012 to discuss the
implementation of RTE in detail. Till now no CBSE school has submitted
the details of number of applications received and admissions made
against the free seats under RTE to the education office.

Also South Point School received the first certificate of recognition
(CR) on July 5, 2012 as made compulsory by RTE. Sources from the school
revealed that all schools irrespective of their affiliated boards must
apply for a CR and get it renewed yearly. As per RTE, schools can lose
their recognition and charged a fine of Rs. 1 lakh along with an
additional amount of Rs 10,000 daily for not having a CR.

Royal Gondwana and Bhavan's Group of Schools are the only CBSE schools
which have applied for CR till now. The last date to apply for CR was
June 30, 2012. Now the deadline has been extended to July 31, 2012 and
after that strict action will be taken against the defaulters.

UT administration has failed to make drafts for notification
In response to an RTI query filed by city private schools, the
central government has clarified that for the implementation of the
Right to Education (RTE) Act, it is mandatory for all UTs including
Chandigarh to first identify the disadvantaged group.
The officials have also noted that the UT Administration needs to
specify the income levels for defining the Economically Weaker Section
(EWS) category. The Administration, then needs to get the drafts
notified from the central government.
As per the provisions of the RTE Act, it is mandatory for all
private unaided schools to reserve 25 per cent seats for students either
from EWS or disadvantaged groups at the entry-level classes.
"For the notification, the UT concerned has to send us a proposal
fixing income limit for weaker sections and specifying children
belonging to disadvantaged groups, after which the Centre will notify
the Act for it," reads the reply to the RTI query.
There are 67 private schools in the city which come under the
purview of the RTE Act. Of these, only 30 schools have filled all the
RTE reserved seats. The Independent Schools' Association (ISA) has long
been reiterating the provisions of the Central government pertaining of
notification of income levels and identification of disadvantaged
groups.
The UT Administration, however, in the last two years since the
RTE Act was implemented has failed to draft either of the notifications.

Alleging that schools in
Chandigarh had failed to comply with the directions of the Supreme Court
on the issue of granting admission to students belonging to the
economically weaker section (EWS), social activist Hemant Goswami on
Thursday demanded strict action to be taken against the erring schools.
During the resumed hearing of a public interest litigation filed
by Goswami, the petitioner argued that the Supreme Court directions to
reserve 15 per cent admissions in all classes had not been complied
with. A division bench suggested that in wake of non compliance, the
petitioner could file a contempt of Court petition against the schools
and Administration.
Goswami submitted that he would file a contempt petition against the schools on account of non compliance of Court directions.
The petitioner had moved the High Court seeking directions to private schools to fill the vacant seats under the EWS category.
The High Court on a previous date of hearing had made it clear
that the Right to Education (RTE) Act would have an overriding effect on
all other regulations regarding reservation of seats for the
economically weaker section. The High Court had directed the private
schools to comply with the RTE Act and the latest Supreme Court judgment
on the Act.
Disposing of petitions filed by private schools challenging
various schemes of the UT Administration and demanding reimbursements,
the High Court had 'left open' the dispute pertaining to concessions
awarded to private schools at the time of allotment of land.

The state education department has said schools which have received
concessions from the government on land, water, tax and others should
not be able to escape from implementing the Right to Education Act
(RTE).
The department has suggested that such schools cannot call themselves
“unaided minorities”, as they have received help from the state
government in some form or another. The department is now conducting a
survey of city schools to find out the kind of concessions that have
been given to such unaided schools.
According to the Supreme
Court judgment in April 2012, schools that are unaided minorities will
be exempted from the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education
Act, 2009. But in Mumbai, this clause is creating problems in the
implementation of the Act as majority of the schools are claiming to be
unaided minorities.
Sanjay Deshmukh, nodal officer for RTE and
special project director of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan, said most of the
schools that are claiming to be unaided have received government help.
For instance, several schools, which have received land on a
concessional rate, are exempted from paying water tax, and are even
provided concessions in electricity bills.
“Why should such
schools call themselves as unaided? They might not be receiving salary
and non-salary grants from the government, but they could have
benefitted from the government help for raising infrastructure. Hence,
they should not refuse from admitting 25% poor students under the RTE.
Other aspects of the RTE should also be binding on these schools,” he
said.
Echoing his views, Jayant Jain, president of the Forum for
Fairness in Education (FFE) said that it was a good move to include such
schools in the RTE.
“Some schools are even exempted from paying
income tax or service tax, although they make profits. Though the
schools are claiming to be minority, there are less than 50% minority
students on their rolls. It would be a good idea to include such
schools, otherwise RTE will be a failure as majority of schools would
not fall under it,” said Jain.
The forum is also going to file a Public Interest Litigation in the Bombay high court against such schools.

Governments should provide free and compulsory education to
children under the age group of 6 to 14 years, NCPCR member Justice B
Subhashan Reddy said.
He was addressing a press conference after conducting a public
hearing on the issue of children's right to education here in Andhra
Pradesh.
He said the commission members conducted public hearing on 16 cases.
Most of the complaints pertained to lack of adequate schools as per the
RTE Act, shortage of teachers and lack of basic infrastructure like
drinking water and toilets in schools.
"We have issued instructions to authorities concerned to solve these
problems by July 31 and send us a report," Justice Reddy said.
The commission, set up in March 2007, heard the complaints from four
districts of Srikakulam, Viziangaram, Visakhaptnam and East Godavari.
Another member of the panel, Deepa Dixit, yesterday visited some
villages in the tribal-dominated areas of Visakhaptnam district to
examine the implementation of the landmark Act.

AHMEDABAD: The central government allocated Rs 1,360.35 crore for the
Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, but Gujarat has only spent Rs 790 crore. The
spending was less than 60 per cent of the allocation.
Manish
Doshi, spokesperson of Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee said that in
the last 10 years, the union government has allotted Rs 1,360.36 crore,
out of which the state government has spent just Rs 461.66 crore for the
Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan in 26 districts and another Rs 325.55 crore in
Ahmedabad, Surat, Rajkot and Vadodara.

He alleged that the major part of the central funds had been used for civil work, which included repairs of school buildings.
Doshi said that the under-utilization of funds speaks of the education
policy of the state government. He said the government is not worried
about children from low income groups.
He said that the
government, by not utilizing the funds properly, has thus taken away the
Right to Education from poor students.
Doshi added that
according to the annual report published, the government has allocated
only 28 per cent of the funds for Vadodara, 21 per cent for Surat, 35
per cent for Rajkot and only 69 per cent for Ahmedabad city.
"It
is crystal clear that this BJP government is not bothered about the
future of poor children in cities," alleged the GPCC spokesperson.

PANAJI: The central government's Shiksha ka haq abhiyan campaign, to
raise awareness at the grassroot-level about the Right to Education
(RTE) Act, 2009, will begin on July 11 with Sattari, where village
panchayat members and school heads will be trained and prepared to
launch the campaign.
"The block-level training to implement the
campaign will begin in all blocks of the Goa Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA)
starting with Sattari on Wednesday and will end at Canacona on July 20.
All village education committee and urban education committee
chairpersons, who are heads of local panchayats, etc, and heads of local
government and government-aided schools will be familiarized at the
training programme with the concept of shiksha ka haq abhiyan," Farell
Furtado, Goa SSA project director, said.

The programme will also train the village heads and school heads in
survey tools to identify the requirements of the neighbourhood schools
as per the provisions of the RTE Act.
"The law gives states time
till 2013 to ensure that infrastructure in schools meet the requirements
of the RTE Act. We are hoping that a sustained campaign at the
community-level will ensure that the RTE delivers. With the help of a
questionnaire, volunteers trained by us will first check if schools meet
the major provisions of the RTE Act. In January 2013, the data gathered
will then be compiled to prepare a report for us to analyse the extent
of RTE-compliant schools," Furtado said.
The campaign, after the first training programme ends on July 20, is set to be flagged off by chief minister Manohar Parrikar
by July-end. "After the campaign is launched by the chief minister, we
will begin our media campaign to raise awareness on the RTE.
Para-teachers, cluster and block resource persons of the SSA will be
roped in the campaign and survey," Furtado said.
The campaign's
idea is to involve local communities to create community awareness about
the provisions of RTE, which is about the legal entitlement to basic
education for children up to the age of 14 years. The trained SSA
personnel will visit schools in teams in each neigbhourhood and hold
discussions with the school staff and local community members to draw
the requirements of the school to become compliant to the provisions of
the RTE by January 2013.
The campaign will cover 905 schools in North Goa and 595 in South Goa starting from the last week of July.

MADURAI: School dropouts who were enrolled in Theni district under the
Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) are being invited for a meeting with the
Theni district collector Dr K S Palanisamy, who wants to ensure that
they continue their education without any hurdles.
Fifteen
students from the RC school in Theni, including fifth standard student
Selvameenal, who was identified by SSA members and enrolled back in
school this year after she dropped out of school in the third standard,
second standard student Jagadeeswaran and fifth standard student Divya
interacted with the collector on Monday, telling him about their
difficulties and future goals. Selvameenal told the collector that she
was forced to drop out after her father deserted their family. But the
little girl expressed her eagerness to study.

Chief Education Officer M Ravichandran said the district had been
allotted Rs 29.09 crore under the SSA for the year 2012 - 2013. The SSA
staff conducted a survey in the month of April and May this year,
identifying 525 dropouts and other children above the age of five who
were not attending school. They were then enrolled in the five
residential and 15 non-residential SSA schools in the district. The
dropout rate had been higher with 625 children identified last year.
Sources at the SSA said that most children who had dropped out of
school, came from broken families. Some were also orphans like Sahul
Hameed, who has now been enrolled in a school with a hostel, where he is
pursuing his fourth standard.
The SSA also caters to special
education of physically and mentally challenged children through its
resource centres which are equipped with therapies like physiotherapy to
help them become self reliant. "The SSA is not just for the normal
kids, it is a means for educating children from various sections of the
society," said SSA members. Theni district has four day care centres for
special children in Theni, Cumbum, Periyakulam and Uthamapalayam, where
children are ferried by auto rickshaws from their homes to the centres
for a day of special care.
The Theni district collector said he
would like to interact with all the children identified and enrolled
back in school to study their progress. He has also asked officials to
ensure that the bright students are brought into mainstream schools and
that the rest are made to reach this mark as well.

In an incident that sent shock waves across the nation, a hostel
warden at Visva Bharati University in West Bengal forced a fifth-class
student to drink her own urine as a punishment for bed-wetting.

Uma
Poddar, the warden of Karabi Girls' Hostel at the University in
Santiniketan, was arrested by the police on Monday, after the
10-year-old victim's parent filed a case against her for the
heinous act.
The warden was later granted bail but the university authorities
wasted no time in suspending her. Describing the incident as
'deplorable', Visva Bharati university vice-chancellor Sushanta Dasgupta
said the warden has been suspended.
The University sources however claimed the warden had made the girl
lick the bedsheet she had wetted and had not forced her to drink her
urine.

We conducted a poll and asked our readers is punishing a student in
such a horrible manner right? An emphatic 97.67 % readers said no
agreeing with the fact that bed-wetting is a medical condition and
punishing a child for this is unjustified.
Netizens on social networking sites Twitter and Facebook expressed
shock and horror at the unfortunate incident, that has left the
10-year-old traumatised.
A reader, Nishchal P commented, the warden needs some psychiatric
help, adding that kids sometimes suffer from different mental disorders
like fear from unknown, attention deficit disorder, etc that can make
kids pee in their bed. But this kind of punishment harms more than helps
them.
Another reader, Salila was of the opinion that the warden...must be
severely punished. "There must be several such cases, but may never come
to light. Any parent would want to collect their daughter immediately
upon hearing such a thing," she commented.
To the question - Should physical punishments in the name of
discipline be banned in schools? - 79.75% people responded positively.
The warden told the girl's mother what she did was a 'treatment to
stop a bad habit'. However, her defence did not find any buyers.
Reader Mohan Jain on Facebook commented, "Uncivilized, disgusting, shameful, unbelievable act. This country is going backwards."
Edward Gura commented, "Really inhuman, especially on an innocent
blemish less young soul. What a shame for progressive society."
The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR)
immediately got into action and slapped a notice on the West Bengal
government asking it to probe the matter and submit a report in the next
10 days. Prime Minister's Office too sought a report on the incident.

PANAJI: The Right to Education (RTE) rules require that the state
education minister head the state advisory council, the body that will
help in effective implementation of RTE provisions.
In Goa, chief minister Manohar Parrikar, who is also the state education minister, is set to opt out of the task and hand over the reins to educationists.

The chief minister is set to nominate Louis Vernal as head of the advisory council.
The chief minister had in June announced that Vernal, the former
principal of Ponda's GVM college and dean of the faculty of education at
Goa University, would advice the government on the issue on medium of
instruction for primary education in Goa.
Once Goa notifies state
rules for the central government Right of Child to Free and Compulsory
Education Act, 2009, the state advisory council, teh 15 members of
which, have already been handpicked by the chief minister, will also be
notified.
Parrikar has already asked the members to work on
recommendations to improve the quality of primary education in Goa. The
report will be submitted for consideration of the government 15 days
after the state advisory council is notified.
RTE requires that a
15-member state advisory council be formed 'from amongst persons having
knowledge and practical experience in the field of elementary education
and child development'.
"The functions of the advisory council
shall be to advise the state government on implementation of the
provisions of the act in an effective manner," states the act.
The advisory council in Goa will compulsorily include four members from
the weaker sections -- SC, ST, OBC and minority communities.
Members of the advisory council will hold office for a term of two years.

NAGPUR: Here's another instance of education officers making their own
rules with respect to Right To Education (RTE) bill. The Zilla Parishad
(ZP) education officer has absolved Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC)
of all responsibility of certifying the distance of an applicant's home
from school. At the same time, it has ruled that schools should not deny
anyone admission for want of a distance or proximity certificate.
Following demands of such certificate, NMC's education department
(primary) had written on June 25 to education department, ZP, asking it
to clarify under what rule or government directive it is required to
issue such a certificate. Education officer (pimary), ZP, Someshwar
Naitam in his reply on July 2 clarified that NMC had no responsibility
for issuing such a certificate. This when no less than education
secretary had asserted local bodies should certify the distance.

"There is no mention about responsibility of NMC to issue distance
certificate in the rules framed under RTE. A school may not deny
admission for want of distance certificate. The respective school has to
verify and take a decision in case any dispute arises with respect of
distance," he said. Citing the letter, NMC education officer Ram
Dongarwar claimed NMC will not issue any such distance certificate.
"Clarification coming from Zilla Parishad settled the matter," he said.

This seems hardly the case. Since the act clearly defines a school
within 1 km from home as neighbourhood school, problems may arise. In
case a school rules applicant does not stay within the stipulated
distance, there is no clarity about resolving the matter. A NMC official
said the applicant will have to approach the government or the courts.
"ZP should write to the government asking it to clarify or appoint an
authority to settle the dispute," he said.

The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act or Right to Education Act (RTE)
was passed amid great fanfare by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA)
in August 2009, and came into force on, ironically, Fool’s Day - April
1, 2010. The provisions of the Act and its demerits have been discussed
abundantly, and there is little that can be seen as positive in the
(probably) well-intentioned but train wreck of legislation. In fact,
newspapers have been filled with RTE frictions in school since the Act
came into force. In this post, I’ll focus on a an equally serious issue
that has received considerably less attention (if at all) from the media
or critics.
In all the hungama that has ensued, the bureaucratic machinery of the
government has succeeded in doing what they are past masters in:
changing the topic. The RTE has become more about quotas and minorities
than about education. It has become about giving more people the same
poor education than actually reforming India’s decrepit education system
to produce able citizens; worse, the government is hijacking private
infrastructure to do so. Despite constant reminders from industry about
the poor quality of students and shamefulresults
of international evaluations (such as PISA), there is little that the
Government is doing to actually improve education in India. And the cost
of this non-action? A whopping Rs. 1.78 lakh crores (though there are “assurances” that the cost will decrease by 66% within five years).Here
are some of India’s real problems with education: 1. a poor curriculum,
2. poor quality of teachers, 3. insufficient teachers, 4. high truancy
of teachers, 5. inadequate physical resources (buildings, blackboards,
drinking water, toilets, etc.), and 6. use of teachers to do non-school
work, such as election or census work.
Low pay, even lower standards, corruption, populism, and the lack of a
philosophy of education have leached any semblance of credibility out of
Indian education. Lest this be blamed on insufficient funds, let it be
known that despite being a Third World country, India is no longer short
of money – the education budget
has witnessed a rapid climb from Rs. 204 billion in 1997-2002 through
Rs. 438 billion in 2002-2007, Rs. 52,060 crores in 2011, to a planned
Rs. 61, 407 crores in 2012. Over three-quarters of this is slated for
primary and secondary education.
Despite the financial outlays, India’s education, even when done
right, is dismal. The lack of Indian professionals at the cutting edge
of intellectual endeavours, be it in terms of prestigious awards such as
the Nobel Prize, number of patents held, contribution to international
efforts such as the space station or CERN, or even scholarly
publications in journals of repute, is a simple yet effective indicator
of the poor quality of Indian academic training. As has been pointed out
umpteen times by many education experts, industry, and even
universities, the Indian student survives by rote learning,
not genuinely comprehending a concept. The objection to this practice
is, or ought to be obvious, and need not be repeated here. To give a
glimpse of how badly such obtuseness and myopia can derail a
country, Rucha Joshi, a participant in the International Exhibition for
Young Inventors (IEYI), 2008, and author of भारतीय बालवैज्ञानिकांची
गरुडझेप (Marathi), points out that the average age of Indians at the
exhibition was 17, whereas the average age of the Japanese contingent
was closer to 10!
Another problem is the state of curricula itself – science syllabi
are infrequently updated, and the humanities are highly politicised in
India. In the latter, the emphasis seems to be not to offend any
community rather than give students as many perspectives as possible of a
controversial issue. Doing the latter, i.e., presenting a
multi-perspectival view, not only forestalls bias in the curriculum but
also demonstrates to children how to think about a thorny topic. As is
often quoted from the Rig Veda, आ नो भद्राः क्रतवो यन्तु विश्वतः
(1.89.1).
This wasting away of India’s most valuable resource – its children –
does not stop with merely the loss of future pecuniary benefits to the
children themselves, but undercuts national growth (not just financial)
in the long run. Social problems will remain unresolved; environmental
issues will not be taken with due seriousness; economic questions will
be slave to petty party politics; and the twin challenges of inclusive
growth and quality of life will receive little to no attention. None of
these can be genuinely taken up with a closed mind, an attitude that
doesn’t question the status quo. But none of this is the focus of the
RTE. Aside from the highly politicised issue of quota, here are some
more deeply problematic questions that have been raised by Kapil Sibal’s
toxic legislation:

II.4 – A child above six who has not been admitted to school yet should be found placement according to age, not merit

II.3(1) – A child is defined as one between the ages of 6 and 14,
yet every other piece of legislation defines age of
majority/emancipation as 18. Surely, this is not inconsistency on the
part of the government? Furthermore, in such a competitive age,
education until the age of 14 (Std. VIII/IX) is simply inadequate and
this early end to the programme makes it wholly ineffective

IV.13(2)(b) – A prohibition is placed on any evaluation of a child
before admission to a school. Had this not been the case, a genuine case
might have been mounted that economically disadvantaged children with
aptitude would be served by the RTE. However, as it stands, this
condition rejects the notion of meritorious admission.

IV.23(2) – A teacher is allowed to teach without credentials for up
to five years, in which time the required credentials must be acquired.
This stipulation spreads the idea of non-merit from children to
teachers. Standards have become mere suggestions.

III.7(6) does suggest the development of standards for teachers and a
national curriculum for students, but this only suggests that either
this has not been done in the past 60+ years after independence (!!) or
that it has been hopelessly ineffective. In which case, how is restating
it going to help?

Obviously, India needs a massive overhaul in not just education, but
also the philosophy of education. Universities have become credentialing
offices and are seen only in a utilitarian perspective. The notion of paideia
has been completely lost. To paraphrase Thomas Browne, no man should
approach the temple of knowledge with the soul of a money changer. And
yet, with legislation like the RTE, the government is ensuring that more
people get poor and incomplete education, most probably at the cost of
deteriorating quality for everyone. Piggybacking on private
infrastructure as the RTE does is only a few steps away from the
nationalisation enacted by Indira Gandhi in the 1970s which brought the
country to its knees.
The focus needs to come back on quality, not quantity. Although the
latter is important too, one cannot be sacrificed for the other. By
distracting the populace with talk of minorities and reservations, the
government is only admitting that it is incapable of the, admittedly,
Herculean task. The United Progressive Alliance has abdicated all
responsibility for governing, while the primary opposition, the
Bharatiya Janata Party, is absconding. The RTE has caused bitter
opposition across the country which it would not have had the Rs. 1.78
lakh crores been sanctioned to raise teacher pay, raise teacher
standards, provide better facilities, and create a functional curriculum
(by way of example, I’d suggest something similar to the International Baccalaureate).
If even 10% of India’s children can learn to think critically, there is
great hope for this mutt of a country. Until then, I cannot help but
fall back to an episode of Yes Prime Minister: The National Education Service (Key
moments - 4:09-5:46: “Who said about children?,” 11:25-11:36: “Look as
if we are trying to do something,” 21:54-22:01: “This is what the DES
planned?!”).

MUMBAI: Even as the deadline to implement the Right To Education Act
lapses today, with many states unable to meet the demands of the act,
the education system received another blow with the Centre granting
permission to 13 states to relax minimum qualifications for appointment
of teachers under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan.
The relaxation was sought, due to the non-availability of teachers possessing minimum qualifications as laid down by the National Council for Teacher Education, under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009.
The permission is perhaps imperative to prevent the closure of schools
for non-availability of teachers, but it also equally important that the
states be given a time-frame within which the targets of providing
trained teachers can be met.
The states in question include Bihar, Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh.
The Centre on its part announced that it has sanctioned grants of over
Rs 6,300 crore to strengthen teacher education during the 12thPlan.
But it is essential that these funds trickle down for their intended
purpose. It has also given permission to respective State Governments
for training of the over 5 lakh in service untrained teachers through
distance mode.
The country perhaps needs to also incentivise its
teaching profession to be able to plug the shortage of teachers in a
sustainable manner.
Of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA)'s 19.82 lakh sanctioned teachers, only12.86 lakh teachers have been recruited till December, 2012.

New Delhi: The central government on Thursday gave its
green signal to 13 states that had sought permission to relax the
minimum qualification criteria for appointment of teachers under the
Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan. The states are Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya,
Nagaland, Tripura, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya
Pradesh, Odisha, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

According to a statement from the Human Resource Development Ministry,
the relaxation was sought due to non-availability of teachers possessing
the minimum qualifications as laid down by the National Council for
Teacher Education under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory
Education Act, 2009.

The government has also sanctioned over Rs.6,300 crore to strengthen teacher education in the 12th Plan, the ministry said.

"The main components of the revised scheme are the setting up of new
District Institutes of Education and Training (DIETs), Colleges of
Teacher Education (CTEs) and Institutes of Advance Study in Education
(IASEs), as well as strengthening of existing DIETs, CTEs and IASEs," an
official from the HRD ministry said.

In addition, National Council For Teacher Education (NCTE) has given
permission to states for training of the over five lakh in-service
untrained teachers through distance mode.

"The central government has requested the states and the union
territories to expedite recruitment of teachers as well as carry out
redeployment of existing teachers to ensure all schools have
pupil-teacher ratios as laid down under the Right to Education Act," the
official said.

According to ministry figures, under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, 19.82
lakh teachers have been sanctioned to states and union territories
against which 12.86 lakh teachers have been recruited till December
2012.

Bajwa, which is surrounded by
industries on the outskirt of Vadodara city, has become the first and
only village in the district to have a remedial training centre for
children with disabilities in the age group of six to 18 years.
Formally inaugurated on Sunday, Bal Gopal Multiple Disability
School started functioning last month, thanks to joint efforts of the
Bajwa village panchayat and a non-government organisation (NGO).
The centre provides remedial training and education to 53
differently-abled children (mostly mentally challenged) of workers
living in Bajwa, Karodiya, Karachiya, Undera and Chhani villages.
"Early this year, I had a survey conducted in the village to find
out children who were not attending schools. We came across 65 children
who were not going to school as they battled various disabilities,"
Suresh Thakkar, the then sarpanch of Bajwa said. Subsequently, he
contacted a few NGOs to do something for these children but did not
receive a favouralbe response. In the meantime, an NGO surveyed Bajwa
and some other villages for Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan of the state education
department.
"We found around 100 children who were not going to school and
needed special attention. We approached Bajwa village panchayat to start
the centre and they readily agreed to help," said Jayshree Chaudhary,
founding president, Astitva Foundation.
Under an agreement, the panchayat gave four rooms to the NGO in
the Primary School No 1 to use free of cost. The school authorities had
surrendered the rooms to the panchayat as they were not used for lack of
students. The centre charges each child Rs 50 per month "to ensure
sustained interest from parents".

Government schools in Bangalore Rural district
are all set to extend education to the kindergarten level as well, with
31 of them preparing to start LKG and UKG classes.

At
the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) district meeting on Saturday, Labour and
Sericulture Minister B N Bache Gowda said private schools had attracted
the attention of parents because of the kindergarten education they
offered.

Due to this, the enrolment in government schools had dropped.

With the introduction of kindergarten education, admissions in government schools will go up too, said the minister.

The department of public instruction is starting the programme in co-ordination with the women and child welfare department.

In schools where anganwadis are run in their premises, kindergarten classes will be held in the same place.

The
31 government higher primary schools will also begin class 8 as part of
the continuous comprehensive evaluation system, which seeks to consider
class 6 to 8 as higher primary, while class 9 and 10 will be high
school, Gowda said.

The budget for Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan this year is Rs 29.82 crore, which is more than twice the previous year’s Rs 13.82 crore.

Of this, nearly Rs 7.5 crore has been set aside for buildings of 210 schools, the minister said.

JAMSHEDPUR: The National
Commission for Protection of Child Rights, (NCPCR), the monitoring
agency for the implementation of the Right to Education (RTE Act, 2009)
at the national level, has sought inquiry into non-availability of books
in the state-run public schools.
In a letter sent to NCPCR, the state unit has recommended an inquiry into the issue.
"We
have sought a probe from the national commission into the alleged
negligence of the state government (human resources department) into the
issue of non-availability of books even after four months into the
session)," said NCPCR state representative, Ganesh Reddy.

Expressing
disappointment over non-implementation of RTE guidelines in private and
public schools the NCPCR representative said its unfortunate but, at
the same time urged upon the government to abide by the RTE guidelines.
"By
and large the impression is that RTE Act has not been realized properly
in the state and I hold the state government largely responsible for
the current situation," said Reddy who is on a visit to the district to
hold interaction with RTE activists. Talking to the press at the local
circuit house, Reddy said soon the government will hold siksha samvad
(dialogue with all stake holders in the field of education) at the
panchayat and block levels to address doubts regarding RTE and its
implementation.
"RTE is not merely about ensuring free and
compulsory education to the economically and socially deprived people
but also about sound school infrastructure, efficient running of
mid-day-meal scheme and providing hygienic school environment," said
Reddy referring to the points where the HRD department in the state has
failed to perform at par with expectations.
Taking a strong view
of the private unaided English schools that have refused to entertain
economically poor children on one pretext or the other, Reddy said: "It
just reflects the attitude of these schools towards the under privileged
sections of the society."

Punjab's government schools are short of Punjabi teachers.
In contrast, private educational institutes that so often get the
rap for not teaching the official language, do a better job of
introducing children to their mother tongue.
In all central, Navodya and army schools affiliated with the central board of secondary education (CBSE) or
Indian certificate secondary education (ICSE), Punjabi is a compulsory
subject from class 1 to 10. Via a notification on March 22, 2010, the
state government amended clause (e) of Section-2 of the Punjab, Punjabi
and Learning of Other Languages Act, 2008, to make its teaching
mandatory.
Where private schools have obeyed the rule, many government schools,
especially in Bathinda district, don't have even one teacher of the
subject, thanks to vacant posts. "The state government is responsible
for all the recruitment," said district education officer (senior
secondary) Hardeep Singh, when reached for answers.
Of the 310 posts of Punjabi teacher in the district, 130 are vacant.
"Earlier my son read Punjabi as an optional subject," said Gurpreet
Singh, father of a private school student. "Now it is mandatory, even to
students from outside states."
The government schools require teachers of many other subjects as
well, as many sanctioned posts are vacant. "Every week, we write to the
education minister about vacancies," said DEO Hardeep Singh.
Education minister Sikander Singh Maluka was unavailable for comments.Violates RTE Act
Under Section 9 (f) of the Right to Education Act, 2009, local
authority has the duty of providing schools with infrastructure,
teachers, and learning material.

The Hindu
TOO POOR: A migrant worker said he was too poor to miss even a day’s
work and so couldn’t afford to pick up and drop his children from
school. File Photo: K. Gopinathan

TOPICS

Migrant labourers’ kids are left with no option but to stay with their parents

On July 5, the fire force personnel rescued three children — Malashree
(7), Bagamma (6) and Kanakashree (an infant less than a year old), when a
three-storey building caved in at Garudacharpalya in Mahadevapura.

It was 11.15 a.m. on Wednesday and the trio should ideally have been in
classrooms or in an anganwadi rather than playing at the construction
site where their parents were working.

About 15 minutes later, the building caved in, trapping the three.

Plight

Their parents are among several migrant labourers in K.R. Puram who have
no alternative arrangements to park their children while they work.
Beerappa, an uncle of one of the children, said: “We have nobody to take
care of them. So we bring them to the construction site.”

Drought situation

Asked why the older children were not in school, he said: “We are poor
people and we cannot miss even a day’s work. We can’t afford to drop and
pick them up every day.”

There are hundreds of such youngsters who are deprived of basic
education because of parental constraints. A large number of
construction workers in the city are migrants from other districts of
the State.

With the drought situation being severe, their numbers have spiked this
season. The children and their families at Garudacharpalya are migrants
from the drought-hit Yadgir district in north Karnataka.

The presence of the children at the construction site raises several
questions on the grand promises made about bringing disadvantaged
children into the mainstream, especially when the Right to Education
(RTE) Act guarantees free and compulsory education till the age of 14.

Crèche facilities

Labour Commissioner S.R. Umashankar said: “When there are more than 20
children at a building site, we ask the construction company to provide
crèche facilities. But we cannot prescribe standards for small
residential buildings.”

Tushar Girinath, State Project Director of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan,
admitted that bringing migrant children into schools was a tough call.
“Most of the construction workers are migrants; we are not in a position
to track these children.”

Mr. Girinath said that help from non-governmental organisations (NGOs)
and co-ordination between departments is required to ensure that the
children of migrants are enrolled into schools.

At a recent press conference, Primary and Secondary Education Minister
Vishweshwara Hegde Kageri had said that about 4,000 children —
especially from migrant families — have never been enrolled in schools
in Karnataka.

Ranchi,
June 18: If you are a needy child — boy or girl doesn’t matter — from
the margins and are lucky to have bagged a berth at a government-run
residential school, welcome to textbooks but please don’t expect
toilets.

This shocking
truth is revealed by the National Commission for Protection of Child
Rights (NCPCR) in its scathing report following visits to Kasturba
Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya, Gumla, and Residential School for Tribal Boys,
Baridih, under Ranchi district. These schools, tucked in the grimy,
poverty-ridden folds of the hinterland, makes a mockery of the Right to
Education Act due to the sheer hardship shorn of dignity that comes hand
in hand with basic schooling.

Windows lack
curtains, staircases railings, toilets running water. Soaps, bulbs and
brooms are unheard-of luxuries. This is life at the girls-only Kasturba
Gandhi residential school in Gumla, which the national child rights
panel does not know what to make of, even after examining its Palamau
counterpart that ran out of a boys’ observation home.

The panel’s visit
was a link in a greater chain of events. A minor Gumla girl was abused
for days at a New Delhi home where she worked as a maid, raising
nationwide outrage. A national commission team comprising members Dinesh
Laroia and Vinod Kumar Tikoo, registrar B.K. Sahu and senior consultant
Ramanath Nayak came to Gumla to understand how mechanics of poverty,
migration and trafficking force minor girls out of homes. The team
visited the Kasturba Gandhi school on April 28 as part of this visit.

In its report to
the state government, the members said Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya
at Bharno, Gumla, some 50km from the capital, had a pucca building with a
boundary wall, but that’s where the good news ended.

One hundred and
sixty-eight girls — against the sanctioned strength of 240 — stay in
rooms with uneven floors, uncovered windows and no doors. The school
does not have proper electricity connection. A generator set operates
for three hours a day, from 6pm to 9pm. Most young girls stayed on the
first floor where the stairway does not have railings. Girls told the
commission members that staying on the first floor was risky during bad
weather and they were “scared” at night. The commission found the toilet
complex “unusable”.

In its report, the
commission has asked the administration to ensure power, proper doors
and windows, railing for stairs, toilet facility, gas or kerosene lamps
and solar torches, as well as repair the ground floor toilet complex.

The Gumla administration responded with a mixed bag of half-hearted work, excuses and explanations.

Gumla deputy
commissioner Rahul Sharma assured “prompt action”. But district
superintendent of education Arjun Prasad said the building was under
construction and had not been handed over to the government by the Gram
Siksha Samiti, which was facing a financial bungling probe.

Prasad added that
the administration had constructed a toilet complex and completed
electric wiring. “But fitting doors will take time,” he said.

At Residential
School for Tribal Boys at Baridih, Ranchi district, which the commission
visited on the same day, 248 boys were found to be staying in utter
filth, said the commission.

The school lacked basic facilities like water, toilets, floors, bulbs, brooms and soaps.

The building was
dilapidated. A section has been declared by the government as “unfit for
use”, but the open kitchen lies within the danger zone.

The school lacks a
functional toilet complex. Irrespective of season or time of day, boys
go to the river, 1.5km from the building, to bathe and relieve
themselves.

The commission
asked the state government to immediately get the toilets functional,
ensure running water, replace fused electric bulbs and arrange safe
electric wiring in the hostel rooms.

PTI | 01:06 PM,Jun 24,2012
New Delhi, Jun 24 (PTI) Citing increasing instances of
children being targeted in Jammu and Kashmir and the North-
East, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights
(NCPCR) has called for strict implementation of the Right to
Education Act in such places to check the practice.
The national child rights body also described as
"disturbing" and "worrying" reports of children being
recruited by extremist groups and targeted by officials in
"encounters".
"Adolescent girls and boys in areas of civil unrest are
increasingly falling prey to trafficking, child labour and
underground groups.
"This clearly shows the lacuna in the education system in
these areas," Shanta Sinha, chairperson of the National
Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), told PTI.
"These children are far more vulnerable also because we
don't have a universal secondary education system. RTE must be
strictly implemented in these places to give newer
opportunities and scope for newer dreams," she said.
Refusing to name any particular group, Sinha said there
are increasing instances of children being recruited by
"underground" groups and "in rare cases targeted by officials
in encounters".
"Children are being made scapegoats in the crossfire
between officials and underground groups. While the former
recruits them, they are in rare cases targeted in encounters
by officials, who suspect them of being part of some extremist
group, even if they are actually not. This is worrying and
disturbing," she said.
Sinha's observation is buttressed by the annual report of
the UN Secretary-General on Children and Armed Conflict,
submitted to the Security Council last week, which said that
information had been received on recruitment and use of
children by naxalites, particularly in Chhattisgarh and some
districts in adjoining states.
The child rights body also expressed concern about the
influx of children from "disturbed" areas to other states in
search of better education and livelihood.
"This is a displacement of sorts. Children are separated
from their families, culture and environment in a manner that
is quite exploitative as their parents are usually poor. This
only shows the need to bolster the education system, which has
been weakened by the unrest," Sinha said.
She said the government and the child rights body are
leaving "no stone unturned" in addressing children's needs
comprehensively in 'disturbed' areas and schemes like 'Bal
Bandhu', implemented in 10 states, have met with "astounding
success".
"Besides, we had in the earlier stage done social audit
in 12 states and developed a template to train communities on
how to audit schools and to see how RTE is being implemented
and it has turned out well.
"We started it as a pilot project and now we are trying
to introduce this pilot to all the educational departments and
asking them to replicate it," she said.